A word from our President

Dear friends and colleagues:

It is hard to believe that the Veterinary & Comparative Clinical Immunology Society (VCCIS) is now two years old. We have grown as a society and rolled out some initiatives we can all be proud of, including our Boehringer Ingelheim-sponsored grant for clinical research and our successful seminar program, not to mention our multiple conference contributions and published consensus statements. We are a passionate and cohesive organization that lives by its vision of a healthier world for animals and people.

The passage of time has shown that this organization serves an important role in the world. We are out of the “honeymoon period” and into the reality of what it takes to keep VCCIS alive and thriving. One of the many variables predicating success is a rather fundamental one: money! While we are solvent and have adequate reserves in our accounts, our sources of revenue are modest and our expenses are rising. We will need to envision ways to generate revenue and to reduce costs.

To that end, we will be restricting our seminars to members only from January 1st, 2024. We will honor the current 2024 bookings (gratis) but will not be allowing any further bookings of seminars in 2024. Access will be restricted solely to members. Of note, we are also seeking Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE^®) accreditation for our seminar program; more news on that soon. Our research grant award, which will soon be announced for 2024, will also only be available to members.

We hope that you will agree that the membership fee ($30/year for trainees and $90/year for non-trainees) is reasonable and that the benefits clearly outweigh the costs. On the subject of money, we are also able to receive donations of any amount on our website. Here is the link: https://www.vccis.org/donate/.

Thank you so much for your continued support of VCCIS. For those of you who are not already members, please do consider becoming a member. You will be joining a vibrant global organization of like-minded colleagues and friends who all have a passion for clinical immunology.

Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy, and successful 2024!

Oliver